1983: FDA approves Cyclosporine, the most successful anti-rejection medication developed to date; by 1984, two-thirds of all heart transplant patients survived for five years or more.

1983: First successful single lung transplant led by Dr. Joel Cooper from the Toronto Lung Transplant Group, at Toronto General Hospital in Canada.

1984: National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) establishes a nationwide computer registry operated by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS); authorizes financial support for Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs); prohibits buying or selling of organs in the United States.

1989: First successful small intestine transplant (a near-total small bowel from a deceased donor) into a child, led by Dr. Olivier Goulet in Paris, France.

1989: First successful living-related liver transplant led by Dr. Christoph Broelsch from Hamburg, Germany, at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

1990: First successful living-related lung transplant led by Dr. Vaughn Starnes at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. He transplants the lobe of one lung from an adult female into the woman’s 12-year-old daughter.

1992: First baboon to human liver transplant performed by Drs. Satoru Todo, Andreas Tzakis and John Fung, under the direction of pioneer transplant surgeon Thomas Starzl, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

1998: National Conditions of Participation legislation enacted; required hospitals to refer all deaths, and imminent deaths, to the local Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs)

1998: First successful hand transplant led by Australian Dr. Earl Owen and Frenchman Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard in a 13-hour long operation in Lyon, France.

2008: Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died on July 11, at the age of 99.

2010: The world’s first full face transplant took place in Spain. The recipient was a man injured in a shooting accident. In July, the recipient who was only identified as Oscar (age 31), spoke with considerable difficulty at a news conference at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron hospital, where he was operated on in late March.